February 21, 2011

Dear Parents and Coddle Creek Community,

Greetings!  I recently read an article in the Statesville Record and Landmark “family” section entitled “14 ways parents can better connect with their children”.  The number one way listed is to use plenty of “positive” words with your child.  The number two way listed is to respond promptly and lovingly to your child’s physical and emotional needs and banish put-downs from your parenting vocabulary.  I’d like to focus this latest blog entry on number two, especially as it relates to an issue we struggle with in our school and many schools around the country; bullying. 

            “Bullying” can be defined as aggressive behavior that is intentional and that involves an imbalance of power or strength.  Bullying can be of the physical or verbal type and often involves situations where students purposely isolate one another socially.  This type of behavior is often repeated over time and can take many forms including: hitting, kicking, shoving, teasing, name-calling, intimidation through gestures or social exclusion, and insults sent through email, text messages, or internet sites like Facebook.  Some researchers believe that bully behavior is a symptom of pain or inner turmoil that the bully is experiencing somewhere else in life.  Young people feel emotions intensely like adults; thus the importance of using “positives” with your child.  Children who bully may be modeling violence or patterns of communication they are experiencing in their own lives. 

            At Coddle Creek we continuously look to improve the lives of our students and overall school community.  We want to accomplish two overall goals this year as part of our “Bully Prevention Education Plan”; 1.  Educate students on what bullying is, how to report it, especially if students have become bystanders and witnessed bullying behavior, and 2.  Train students and staff on how to best cope with Bullying behavior while maintaining a safe school.  We will accomplish our goals by incorporating the Bully Prevention Education Plan into our School Improvement Plan (SIP) including integral components of Character Education.  The appropriate use of school norms, hallway norms, and expected behaviors will be modeled and taught in classroom lessons.  We will recognize students in “positive” ways using Character Education recognitions including: Bus Riders of the Month, Class hallway norm winners, and Coyote Character winners. So what next?

What can you do at home to support us in our efforts to be a Bully Free School Zone?

1. Encourage your student/child through positive encouragement—use positive words in your home.
2. Monitor who their friends are and what they do with their friends.
3. Closely monitor their time on the internet. 
4. Model bully-free behavior for them by maintaining a “put-down free” environment in your homes.
5. Encourage them to “report” bullying and not be a bystander.  Bystanders can often be misunderstood as the bully “or” supporting the bully.

What more can we do as a school to support the community of CCE to help nurture a Bully Free School Zone?

1. Use Guidance lessons to model and role play appropriate and bully-free behavior
2. Require teachers to “always” allow and encourage students to report bullying.
3. Use Bully Birdhouses located in the school to provide for private anonymous reporting of negative behaviors and bullying.
4. Use “School Norms” lessons and class meetings as part of our Bully Prevention Plan to better educate and in some cases “re-educate” our students on appropriate Bully free behavior.
5. Create a Non-whisper, Non-rumor, and No-secrets school, explaining to students why it is better to not whisper, or spread secrets about others.
6. Follow the district Bullying consequences when bullying does occur.
7. Provide possible parent/community forums to further educate the community on bullying, cyber bullying, internet safety and similar topics.

*I welcome your responses and opinions to the content of this blog/letter.  I am in no way an expert of bullying prevention.  I firmly believe it will take all of us working together to find solid, long lasting solutions to the challenge of bullying behavior.  That is why I welcome your feedback and input.  Research states that 67% of parents of 3 to 7 year olds worry that their children will be bullied.  Your feedback and support in our efforts to become a Bully Free School is essential to help assure that Coddle Creek School is Bully free.

*You may respond to this letter by visiting the Principal’s Blog on the CCE website.  I encourage you to send questions or responses that I could then share with our School Improvement Team and Behavior Team.

Thanks for your support.

Brian Foster, M.A.

Principal

Resources:

http://stopbullyingnow.com/

stopbullying.org

http://www.stopcyberbullying.org/